Gentle curves

This is a photo of one of the beautiful Orchids in the ENMAX Conservatory at the Calgary Zoo, taken on 15 March 2012. Such elegant flower centres.

Lol, it felt SO good to not have to set my alarm clocks for 4:00 a.m. this morning, for another Bird Count! Yesterday's Christmas Bird Count was north of Cochrane (NW of Calgary), driving all the backroads and calling in at various farms in the area called the Cochrane Wildlife Reserve (i.e. east of Highway 22/Cowboy Trail.) The weather was beautiful and we (only three of us turned out for this Count!) had a good day. We found a total of 16 bird species (exactly the same number of species, but some different birds, as the group of four people had had on the previous day's count (the Cochrane Christmas Bird Count). I always enjoy the Reserve Count, as I get to see Llamas, farm cats and dogs and horses : ) There were two highlights - first, a huge swarm of Snow Buntings that were weaving their way en masse, backwards and forwards, and then landed at the top of a tree, about 50' up. I was told that this is SO unusual for them to land at the top of a very tall tree, and I was able to get out of the car and walk up the backroad to be closer. An amazing feeling to have many hundreds of these small, white birds flying around you. They are such beautiful birds when in flight. The other highlight, I'd say THE highlight of the 11-hour day, was when we stopped at a gas station for their washrooms, after 10 hours with no washrooms, lol!!! Back to getting up at an unearthly hour tomorrow morning, for the Nanton Christmas Bird Count south of Calgary - another of my favourite Counts. On 1st January, Calgarians have the annual Fish Creek Park New Year's Day Bird Count. Three days after that, I have my last Christmas Bird Count, way east of the city. Will be relieved in some ways, but certainly feeling extremely thankful for these chances to get out of the city and see some different things to photograph.